National Announcement

In November 2012, the Ministry of Health issued the Announcement on the Approval of 4 New Resource Foods, including Proteus Chlorella (Ministry of Health Announcement No. 19 of 2012), officially approving Proteus Chlorella, Ulmus Leaf and Moringa Leaf as New Resource Foods.

Food Part: Stalked pinnate leaves

Introduction of Moringa Leaf

Moringa leaves are native to India and Africa, also known as drumstick tree, horseradish tree, is a traditional Indian herbal medicine, with a variety of potential effects and medical uses, Indian traditional medicine, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Rome have used moringa to treat illnesses, China began to introduce the moringa tree in the 1960s, in Yunnan, Guangzhou, Hainan, Taiwan and other places are planted.

Moringa leaves are so called because of the spicy flavor of the root. Although moringa leaves have a long history of consumption and treatment of disease, but not much research on its pharmacological mechanism, until the 1980s, countries began to focus on the study of moringa leaves of nutrients and functional active ingredients.

Moringa leaves have excellent antioxidant flavonoids, polyphenols and other substances, as well as rich in effective hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, hypotensive glycosides, sterols and so on. The alkaloids, thiogluconates, polyphenols and other substances contained in the leaf make it have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and other physiological functions.

According to the existing research and the theory of Chinese medicine, it can be presumed that Moringa leaves are cold in nature, sweet, bitter, sedative, and belong to the liver, spleen (or / and stomach) meridian, belong to the non-toxic class of herbs under the safe dosage, the combination and contraindications are not yet clear, but it has the effect of strengthening the spleen, resolving phlegm, clearing the liver, and fire and so on.

Nutritional Value of Moringa Leaf

Moringa leaves are rich in nutrients. 100g of fresh leaves of traditional Indian Moringa contains about 9mg of Vitamin E, and the dried leaves contain about 16.2mg. According to statistics, as little as three tablespoons (about 25g) of dried Moringa leaves contains 270% of a young child’s daily requirement of Vitamin A, 42% of protein, 125% of calcium, 70% of iron, and 22% of Vitamin C. The powder is also a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin B. C.

Benefits of Moringa Leaf

1. Moringa leaves can provide the human body with comprehensive and balanced nutrients, improve immunity, promote metabolism, and improve the state of sub-health;

2. Moringa leaves have the effect of stabilizing blood pressure, balancing glucose levels in diabetics, etc. The hypoglycemic effect of moringa leaf extract has been supported by modern laboratory studies, although its effectiveness is not as good as that of standard hypoglycemic drugs. However, its efficacy increases as the dosage and duration of administration increase. Moreover, the human body will not produce any dependence or side effects on it, which is safe, nutritious and healthy.

3. Improve sleep, improve sleep quality, and expel harmful substances from the body. Moringa leaf extract’s sleep-aiding effect is due to its inhibitory effect on the central nervous system. In animal experiments, the test mice appear obvious muscle relaxation, body temperature drop, sleep time extension phenomenon.

4. Laxative, improve gastrointestinal function. Moringa leaf extract has antibacterial and anthelmintic effects, improves gastrointestinal discomfort, promotes digestion, and regulates constipation.

5. Avoid osteoporosis, as we grow older, calcium will continue to lose. Especially women, after menopause calcium loss rate will be doubled. Moringa leaves are rich in calcium and vegetable proteins to avoid osteoporosis and other symptoms caused by calcium loss.

Application of Moringa leaves in food

With the domestic demand for consumer upgrading, researchers began to increase the development of functional products related to moringa leaves, for example, some researchers use moringa seed oil as a base, supplemented with phytosterols and other efficacy components, developed a natural alcohol detoxification products moringa detoxification gastric capsule; some of the skimmed milk powder as the main raw material, add moringa juice, developed a moringa flavored nutritious yogurt; some of the moringa leaf extracted from the protein, developed and Determined the best formula for clear protein drinks and moringa protein milk tea.

With the fever of moringa research, more and more moringa-related products appear in the market, such as moringa tea, moringa soup, moringa nutritional powder, moringa wine, moringa capsules, canned moringa and so on.

Moringa pastry green, from the chlorophyll in the moringa leaves, such as proper processing, leaf powder can also maintain the natural green, can reduce the “green” food coloring. It can be made into a healthy zero-added moringa powder to eat.

Moringa powder can also be combined with rice syrup, made of moringa leaf noodles, looks very distinctive, that is, to retain the flavor of the noodles, but also the natural green color of moringa noodles after cooking more appetizing.

As for the regular forms combined with flour, such as buns, steamed bread, bread, cookies, it is also very easy. In 200 grams of flour, add 5% to 15% of Moringa powder, and you can easily make a unique pastry with a natural appetizing emerald green color.

The hardness, stickiness and chewiness of the cookies increased significantly with the addition of moringa leaf powder, and the stickiness, chewiness and hardness of the cookies decreased with the addition of 6.5% of moringa leaf powder, which resulted in a better structural quality of the cookies. According to the results of sensory evaluation, when the amount of chia leaf powder added was 6.5%, its color, odor, tissue and taste items were rated higher.